[R. Daneel]

Hi Antun,

OUr initial version of the BOT-1 that we have planned will be BDP-2 only compatible, but should be south of a thousand dollars; infact it should cost roughly the same as a BUC-1.  Manic Moose is being developed from the start with the expectation of the additional features that we have toyed with in Loony Loon (the current stable firmware) and should integrate with fewer issues. 

Initially the BOT-1 will do cd's, but with help of end users we have to add additional support for as many types of media as possible.  Due to keeping cost down and unable to find a sata drive that will read SACD we likely won't support the format.  With that said, audio from DVD's and other formats should be possible as there are many open source programs to take advantage of ripping audio from these forms of media.

Buffering the audio cd into system memory allows us to remove any jitter caused by playing back directly from the optical drive and thus allowing us to use off the shelf hardware for the drive and thus bringing the final cost down.  We did come to the same conclusion that the 60-120 seconds would be annoying, however the sonic results and additional benefits; one of which was pointed out to me during a demo, that being able to go straight from say track 2 to track 9 without pushing the next track button seven times.  Also not the focus of the BOT-1.

The BOT-1 will be a unique product for sure and is mainly to introduce end users that aren't comfortable with digital audio into using a BDP to store there digital library.  The idea is with a BDP-2 and a BOT-1 you'll have a "traditional" cd player like system and slowly become acquainted with the additional features and hopefully eventually use the BDP as a BDP along with as a method for ripping there music library to a hard drive.

Finally the warranty will likely be the same as the BCD-1 which I believe was three year warranty, and will be available where ever the BDP-2 is sold.

I hope this clears things up

Cheers,
Chris

It does indeed, thank you!

Cheers!
Antun

[R. Daneel]

Hi Chris!

I have a few more questions.

Is the BOT-1 going to be dependent on tge BDP-2 for power supply via eSATA interface or will it have it's own internal power supply?

Also, will it have it's own display  and transport controls or will it be necessary to use the UI on the BDP-2? You mentioned cost cutting and I think it is justified in this case because the future of this project is not that forthcoming in the strictest sense so perhaps one of the ways to cut costs additionally would be to provide only minimalistic UI on the BOT-1 since it cannot be used with anything else but the BDP-2. A power button and an eject button along with LEDs indicating disc status is all you would need on a add-on machine like this.

I am interested to know however whether the eSATA interface on the BDP-2 will be able to accomodate a standard DVD/BR drive and provide power to it?

If I may ask, which drive was chosen for the BOT-1? I have had many and my best experiences were with Hitachi drives. Plextor drives previously manufactured by Sanyo were excellent for ripping but the results were not always superior and they came with a price. Pioneer drives, especially the slot-in loading types, were unreliable for some reason even though I think drops in performance while ripping were the result of firmware, not hardware. LG and Samsung drives seem to be popular now but some LG drives are known to have inversed channels while ripping and their speed performance is usually unremarkable. Several years ago I was very interested in this sort of a thing and so did many performance measurements in order to get perfect CD rips. Unfortunately, I had a misfortune of storing all the data digitally and that hard drive was destroyed by a lighting storm. Now, all of these obeservations were made a couple of years ago and so they might not be relevant today.

Cheers!
Antun

[R. Daneel]

One other thing, considering BDP-2 has only one eSATA connector, will the BOT-1 allow for connection of eSATA HDDs along with the connection to BDP-2?

For instance, connecting BOT-1 to BDP-2 will take the eSATA connector on BDP-2 and you won't be able to connect anything else. By offering an additonal eSATA connector on BOT-1 itself, you won't be limited to using BOT-1 only.

Cheers!
Antun

[MoPac]

Hi James & Chris
 Love the idea of a quality ripping solution that interfaces with the final destination for the music.  My only concern would be the tagging of those files.  Outside sources often get things wrong particularly for the Classical genre.
  It would be cool to have the option to manually tag the newly ripped CDs.  So.... Once the files are ripped and your on Windows Explorer will the files be seen in the Artist / Album folder format?   Can art files be added and used as they are now ( local art )?  Can I manually change the Artist, Album, Genre, Date, etc.?

Thanks
Rich

[unincognito]

Hi Chris!

I have a few more questions.

Is the BOT-1 going to be dependent on tge BDP-2 for power supply via eSATA interface or will it have it's own internal power supply?

Also, will it have it's own display  and transport controls or will it be necessary to use the UI on the BDP-2? You mentioned cost cutting and I think it is justified in this case because the future of this project is not that forthcoming in the strictest sense so perhaps one of the ways to cut costs additionally would be to provide only minimalistic UI on the BOT-1 since it cannot be used with anything else but the BDP-2. A power button and an eject button along with LEDs indicating disc status is all you would need on a add-on machine like this.

I am interested to know however whether the eSATA interface on the BDP-2 will be able to accomodate a standard DVD/BR drive and provide power to it?

If I may ask, which drive was chosen for the BOT-1? I have had many and my best experiences were with Hitachi drives. Plextor drives previously manufactured by Sanyo were excellent for ripping but the results were not always superior and they came with a price. Pioneer drives, especially the slot-in loading types, were unreliable for some reason even though I think drops in performance while ripping were the result of firmware, not hardware. LG and Samsung drives seem to be popular now but some LG drives are known to have inversed channels while ripping and their speed performance is usually unremarkable. Several years ago I was very interested in this sort of a thing and so did many performance measurements in order to get perfect CD rips. Unfortunately, I had a misfortune of storing all the data digitally and that hard drive was destroyed by a lighting storm. Now, all of these obeservations were made a couple of years ago and so they might not be relevant today.

Cheers!
Antun

Hi Antun,

Currently I am looking at drives from teac and Panasonic, the teac is only a DVD rom and the Panasonic is a blu-Ray burner.  Teac seems to have a better rep then Panasonic, but I don't think there would be a performance difference.  Both drives are priced equally and what I have read appears to indicate that the teac drive might be of better build quality.

The other thing to keep in mind is that we are using a standard slim slot loading drive, so there is no reason why you couldn't just swap the drive our with your own.  Perhaps we might even sell a bot with out the drive on the basis you bring your own.

I am tempted to go with the blu-Ray drive, but I'm not sure about the licensing that would go with and if we would ever make use of blu-Ray.  There are open source programs available that would let us rip the audio content from a blu-Ray disk, makemkv comes to mind.

We plan on launching a power supply to go with the BOT and for other products to come.  The power supply will be needed if you intend on using the BOT with a BDP-1 and possibly the BDP-2 if it isn't capable of providing enough power.

Cheers
Chris

[unincognito]

One other thing, considering BDP-2 has only one eSATA connector, will the BOT-1 allow for connection of eSATA HDDs along with the connection to BDP-2?

For instance, connecting BOT-1 to BDP-2 will take the eSATA connector on BDP-2 and you won't be able to connect anything else. By offering an additonal eSATA connector on BOT-1 itself, you won't be limited to using BOT-1 only.

Cheers!
Antun

We tested easta vs USB 2.0 and found both performed identically, so to keep compatibility with the BDP-1 we went with USB.  We would have done both, but couldn't find a chip that we could buy that supported both that wasn't end of life.

Cheers
Chris

[unincognito]

You will be able to rip your cd's as wav, flac or mp3 and we will likely offer additional formats based on customer feedback.  Customers will be able to choose the location where the music is ripped and the file folder structure that will be generated.  Similar to existing ripping software.  You will be able to rip the content into multiple formats at once.  If we can get the software to work we will include an iTunes media server package to host music for computers running iTunes.  The idea with iTunes is you can choose to have a separate folder for iTunes and then the rest of your lossless library.

[gdayton]

You may want to add noise to your selection criteria. A noisy drive in the listening room could get annoying.

[R. Daneel]

Hi Chris!

in 2000 we did a big test of DVD drives and Pioneer and Plextor came on top in terms of ripping. They had a convincingly faster ripping times than the rest of the drives. Plextor was the more expensive unit, Pioneer was a slot-loader. Plextor was made by Sanyo even though later I read they went with Hitachi instead.

But please tell me, would the ripping engine work without the BDP being connected to a network? Would there be an additional menu for ripping settings in the BDP display or would I have to connect the BDP to the network and do it on a computer or a tablet?

One other thing you could possibly consider is what happens once a CD has been inserted. You could add a feature that automatically starts the ripping engine once a CD has been loaded. Likewise, you could allow for the user to decide what he wants once the CD has been loaded - start the ripping or start the playback. This would be handy I think.

Cheers!
Antun

[unincognito]

Hi Chris!

in 2000 we did a big test of DVD drives and Pioneer and Plextor came on top in terms of ripping. They had a convincingly faster ripping times than the rest of the drives. Plextor was the more expensive unit, Pioneer was a slot-loader. Plextor was made by Sanyo even though later I read they went with Hitachi instead.

But please tell me, would the ripping engine work without the BDP being connected to a network? Would there be an additional menu for ripping settings in the BDP display or would I have to connect the BDP to the network and do it on a computer or a tablet?

One other thing you could possibly consider is what happens once a CD has been inserted. You could add a feature that automatically starts the ripping engine once a CD has been loaded. Likewise, you could allow for the user to decide what he wants once the CD has been loaded - start the ripping or start the playback. This would be handy I think.

Cheers!
Antun

by default the BDP will ask if you want to play back the cd or to rip the contents.  You will be able to rip without using the network or even an internet connection.  You can setup the BDP in advance or if no settings have been provided it will use some default settings.  No network connection would mean no internet which would mean no cd identification, i suspect most customers will want the BDP to be connected to there home network.

Cheers,
Chris

[unincognito]

You may want to add noise to your selection criteria. A noisy drive in the listening room could get annoying.

Noise really hasn't been an issue this far, i suppose its one of the benefits of using a slim line optical drive.  Granted I havn't used a decibel meter and am simply going by ear.

[gdayton]

a metal enclosure probably helps too. I've got a cheap external usb with a slimline drive in it, but it's a little noisy in its plastic enclosure.

[R. Daneel]

by default the BDP will ask if you want to play back the cd or to rip the contents.  You will be able to rip without using the network or even an internet connection.  You can setup the BDP in advance or if no settings have been provided it will use some default settings.  No network connection would mean no internet which would mean no cd identification, i suspect most customers will want the BDP to be connected to there home network.

Cheers,
Chris

That's great Chris, thank you!

With the BDP-1, how exactly will playback work? You mentioned the BOT-1 will read all the data up-front and it will be stored in the BDP memory. But, BDP-1 does not have enough memory to store an entire CD. What are your thoughts on this?

Cheers!
Antun

[unincognito]

That's great Chris, thank you!

With the BDP-1, how exactly will playback work? You mentioned the BOT-1 will read all the data up-front and it will be stored in the BDP memory. But, BDP-1 does not have enough memory to store an entire CD. What are your thoughts on this?

Cheers!
Antun

The BDP-2 will have two methods of audio cd playback, both of which have already been implemented in current and past firmware.  The original method of ripping the entire cd as wav files (one for each track) in system memory and the second to use MPD's abaility to playback audio cd's.  The BDP-1 will simply only use the MPD method of playing back cd's; MPD will rip the cd one track at a time, infact it appears to only rip a few seconds at a time.  Although the whole cd isn't stored in system memory what is currently being played is, requiring less memory.  With that said, what ever comes out form the BDP to your DAC will already be buffered in system memory from ALSA.  The other benefit of the MPD method is the CD will be accessible from any MPD client (ie mPod, mPad, gmpc, etc) by way of a playlist that is created when ever a cd is inserted into the system; so if you prefer these other clients you can continue to use them.

Cheers,
Chris

[R. Daneel]

The BDP-2 will have two methods of audio cd playback, both of which have already been implemented in current and past firmware.  The original method of ripping the entire cd as wav files (one for each track) in system memory and the second to use MPD's abaility to playback audio cd's.  The BDP-1 will simply only use the MPD method of playing back cd's; MPD will rip the cd one track at a time, infact it appears to only rip a few seconds at a time.  Although the whole cd isn't stored in system memory what is currently being played is, requiring less memory.  With that said, what ever comes out form the BDP to your DAC will already be buffered in system memory from ALSA.  The other benefit of the MPD method is the CD will be accessible from any MPD client (ie mPod, mPad, gmpc, etc) by way of a playlist that is created when ever a cd is inserted into the system; so if you prefer these other clients you can continue to use them.

Cheers,
Chris

Hi Chris!

That is one elegant way to keep compatibility with BDP-1! Thanks!

But please tell me, MPD is the application installed in the BDP-1 as part of it's Linux, right? I can see that every time my BDP-1 is turned on, it is "intalling MPD" so I guess that's it then.

Cheers!
Antun

[unincognito]

Hi Chris!

That is one elegant way to keep compatibility with BDP-1! Thanks!

But please tell me, MPD is the application installed in the BDP-1 as part of it's Linux, right? I can see that every time my BDP-1 is turned on, it is "intalling MPD" so I guess that's it then.

Cheers!
Antun

Correct, also because it's not trying to rip the entire cd at once it spins at a lower speed which means less audible noise.  You can still hear it, but I have to put my ear right up to it.  Even the second generation bot using the full size desktop optical drive is very quiet in it steel chassis.

Cheers
Chris

[R. Daneel]

Correct, also because it's not trying to rip the entire cd at once it spins at a lower speed which means less audible noise.  You can still hear it, but I have to put my ear right up to it.  Even the second generation bot using the full size desktop optical drive is very quiet in it steel chassis.

Cheers
Chris

That's great Chris!

I was a bit worried due to fast reading times the drive would be producing mechanical noise but it's good to know it doesn't spin the disc at maximum speed. It should also reduce the heat and prolong the drive's service life I think.

Is there a release date for the BOT-1 yet? It certainly looks like something I'd add to the BDP-1.

Cheers!
Antun

[unincognito]

That's great Chris!

I was a bit worried due to fast reading times the drive would be producing mechanical noise but it's good to know it doesn't spin the disc at maximum speed. It should also reduce the heat and prolong the drive's service life I think.

Is there a release date for the BOT-1 yet? It certainly looks like something I'd add to the BDP-1.

Cheers!
Antun

BDP-1 customers are going to require a seperate power supply product as the BDP-1's power supply is inadequate.  Because we intend on using the BPS (Bryston Power Supply) with other future products it will likley take longer to have safetied for sale.

Cheers
Chris

[adrianwindo]

H Chris

Has it been decided to launch the BOT-1, if so when might we see it. Three months, six months, 12 months

thanks


Adrian

[BrysTony]

BDP-1 customers are going to require a seperate power supply product as the BDP-1's power supply is inadequate.  Because we intend on using the BPS (Bryston Power Supply) with other future products it will likley take longer to have safetied for sale.

Cheers
Chris

Chris, that is the first mention of a new power supply that I have seen.  Is it planned to be an update to the MPS-2 and will it handle previous boxes such as the BP 1.5 and BP26 as well as the BOT-1 and other future products?

Tony